Movement Pattern: Brace

Bracing is strength and a skill. It might well be the fundamental strengthskill — no movement can happen without it. Think of Bracing as the ability to knit the body together in stillness (static) or movement (dynamic). Functionally, to feel strength extend between segments of the body and from the center outward. The more you build and become aware of this, the more you will feel your center as the nexus of movement.

It’s not about squeezing your abs and glutes all day. Constant tension inhibits good movement. Rather, learn to know when to contract and when to relax, and how to feel that across many contexts, and how to draw from and connect with all contact points (e.g., feet on the floor, hand on a handle or bar). Putting strength into useful patterns when it’s needed — that’s where mastery is.

Many Brace exercises are what might be categorized as “core” work. This is true, but bracing happens throughout the body. You’ll see us use a lot of variants of hollowbody (torso and hip flexion), skydiver (torso and hip extension), positions of side flexion, Supports and Supends variants, and a lot of neutral posture braces (e.g., static / slow squats and single leg work). And when you throw KBs or MBs around, there’s oodles of bracing through different parts of the movements.

Bracing will make you sore in all those “didn’t know you had ‘em” nooks and crannies. What’s better: it will give you more strength and awareness to move easier (yourself and things), posture up, and align more naturally through the many odd angles encountered in an experience-led life.